Monday, August 20, 2007

Well, day the first. You know, not having to serve as a teacher, it really wasn't much more than a normal day at the office, except for the occasional loud noise of kids going to and from class. Except it was a little hectic, I had some things break that were not as simple to fix as they would have been the other day.

The kids seemed really excited to be back. Y'know, for a good number of these kids, school is their only real opportunity to see their friends. Since lots of them can't be mobile in the city, this is their chance. Consequently, we have a lot lower absentee rate than many other schools.

Yesterday was a holiday, one of the many Afghan independence days, and so it was a last, hurried yet relaxed day before the kids came in. I worked for an hour or two in the morning, then took off for a while and played basketball with a couple of the guys for about 2 hours. We played 2-2 to 11, with 5 minute breaks between games. There were 5 of us, so we just randomly subbed. It was kind of funny, I think one game, one of the guys scored 14, 15 points and still lost because he subbed from up 8-2 to down 10-4, and lost 11-9 (or something like that). Then I ate lunch, and went back to work and worked until about 6:00. I would have worked more, but city power went out, and while I was getting the generator on, some folks invited me to supper. Then we had a group meeting, so I just decided I was done for the day.

Today, today was why I came. I enjoy being able to just make stuff happen. The principal asked if I could set up the portable sound system for Assembly 10 minutes before. No problem! People need to be able to print to different printers? Can do! Copier needs unjammed? I'm there. Sure, I have projects I need to work on, but begin able to do things that people need done right then? That's what I am here to do.

So there were a couple things I didn't get done today. I'll try better tomorrow. It can't get any worse. Oh, and I got to play some with the new intercom system today. That was neat.

1 comment:

About Me

Hi - I'm your erstwhile blog authorial figure.

I was in the 'Stan, starting in August 2007 until the call to change came, working as the IT Coordinator for a school. Now I am back in the U.S. with my beautiful wife, and we are figuring out life together. Sometime we are hoping to go back overseas, we just have to wait for the call for when.